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Starships
Starships are spacecraft capable of traveling between star systems using thrusters and FTL drives. Large Military Vessels Frigates Frigates are light escort and scouting vessels. They often have extensive GARDIAN systems to provide anti-fighter screening for capital ships, and carry a squad of marines for security and groundside duty. Unlike larger vessels, frigates are able to land on planets. The most important role filled by frigates is reconnaissance. Sensors, unlike ships and communications employing the mass effect, are limited to the speed of light. Subsequently, a stationary observer can only detect a vessel one light-year away when its light arrives at the observer's location, one year after leaving said vessel. Because faster-than-light attackers always arrive before defenders can detect them with luminal sensors, attackers can always surprise defenders. For defense, fleets surround themselves with spheres of scouting frigates scanning for enemy ships and transmitting warnings to the main body. Frigates achieve high FTL cruise speeds because of their high-performance drives. They also have proportionally larger thrusters and lighter design mass, allowing them greater maneuverability. In combat, speed and maneuverability make frigates immune to long-range fire of larger vessels. In fleet combat, frigates are organized into "wolf pack" flotillas of four to six. Wolf packs speed through enemy formations, hunting enemy vessels whose kinetic barriers have been taken down by fighter-launched disruptor torpedoes. The wolf pack circle-strafes vulnerable targets, using their superior speed and maneuverability to evade return fire. Destroyers Destroyers are fast, maneuverable long-endurance warships intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or battle group, and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers like frigates. Federation destroyers are also geared towards artillery supports and providing limited transport capability for planetary assaults. Before the Second Bug War, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for long range operations; typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of laser technology and micro missiles allowed destroyers to take on the artillery support roles for planetary landings previously filled by corvettes and cruisers. This resulted in smaller miniaturized Alesia class destroyers with more powerful offensive capabilities for independent operation. Following the aftermath of the Petolemaiac War, destroyers become the standard escort space vessels of the Federation, with only the Petolemaiac and the Alliance being the other two operators of similar vessels of the type as most Citadel races rely on Frigates and Cruisers for these roles. These vessels have been augmented with extra payload capabilities oriented towards planetary assaults and fleet escort roles. Cruisers Cruisers are middle-weight combatants, faster than dreadnoughts, and more heavily-armed than frigates. Cruisers are the standard patrol unit, and often lead frigate flotillas. Cruisers cannot land on medium or high-gravity worlds, but do possess the ability to land on low-gravity planets. Cruiser-weight starships are the standard combat unit encountered away from large naval bases, the "poor bloody infantry" of most fleets. Nimble scouting frigates have neither the punch nor the stamina to stand up to serious combat, and the mighty dreadnoughts are a strategic resource, carefully hoarded and committed to the most critical battles. Cruisers perform routine independent "show the flag" patrols in settled systems and lead flotillas of frigates in small engagements, such as pirate suppression campaigns. In major fleet engagements, cruiser squadrons support the dreadnought battle line by screening their flanks against enemies attempting to maneuver for a main gun "bow shot" from their vulnerable broadsides. Battlecruisers, despite their name, is actually a dreadnough-sized vessel which favored on speed and firepowers and were typically designed to hunting down smaller cruiser types while avoiding direct confrontation with larger and better armored dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts Dreadnoughts are kilometer-long capital ships mounting heavy, long-range firepower. They are only deployed for the most vital missions. A dreadnought's power lies in the length of its main gun. Dreadnoughts range from 800 meters to one kilometer long, with a main gun of commensurate length. An 800-meter mass accelerator is capable of accelerating one twenty-kilogram slug to a velocity of 4025 km/s (1.3% the speed of light) every two seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of about 38 kilotons of TNT, about two and a half times the energy released by the fission weapon that destroyed Hiroshima. The Treaty of Farixen stipulates the amount of dreadnoughts a navy may own, with the turian peacekeeping fleet being allowed the most. As of 2665 GS, the turians had 48 fast battleships and 12 super dreadnoughts, the asari had 22 dreadnoughts and 9 super dreadnoughts, the salarians had 26 stealth dreadnoughts, and the terrans, being a non-signatory member had 286 battlecruisers with a super dreadnought undergoing trials while three more under construction .The Geth, unbound by the treaty, possess almost as many dreadnoughts as the turians. In preparation for the retaking of their homeworld, the quarians fitted their Liveships with dreadnought cannons, effectively making them dreadnought-class vessels though with much weaker armor. The batarians are stated to possess dreadnoughts, but the exact number is unknown. Battlecruisers A term coined by humans from the Federation and the Alliance,a type of capital ship with similar in size, cost, and armament to a standard dreadnought, but they generally carried less armour in order to obtain faster speeds. Also known as "Dreadnought Cruiser" (Turian classification) or "Cruiser-Battleships" (Salarian classification). The first battlecruisers of John A Warden class were designed for the Federation in the early stage of the Second Bug Wars as a replacement of the obsolete Athena class armoured cruiser, while Citadel dreadnought design become the norms for large sized capital ships of the fleet.These ships were designed with heavy protection and powerful array of lasers capable of bearing the brunt of frontline assault in a fleet battle. Terran High Command could not agreed upon a unified doctrines of the Dreadnought type vessels, hence the Federation Dreadnought designs tend to fal into two battlecruiser categories: Swift, well armed but lightly armored Battlecruisers designed to chase smaller wolf-packs or Line breaker type Fast Battleships which rely on heavy armor and speed to compensate their inferior armaments to Citadel Super-Dreadnought types. The Quarian Dreadnought-sized Liveships also fell into Battlecruiser categories, these ships have been augmented with multiple large caliber mass accelerators for their militarization plans in order to retake their homeworld, however, their protections and speed are inferior compared to the better armored Federation John A Warden class Dreadnought and many other Citadel types. Fast Battleship A fast battleship was a dreadnought-type vessel which emphasised speed without – in concept – undue compromise of either protection or armament. Most of the Citadel dreadnought battleships were typically built with low design speeds, so the term "fast battleship" is applied to a design which is considerably faster. The extra speed of a fast battleship was normally required to allow the vessel to carry out additional roles besides taking part in the line of battle, such as escorting aircraft carriers. The Petolemaiac Hegemony, most specifically the Republic of Hamon, were known to use these vessels as flagships during the Petolemaiac War, Known as These battleships largely distinguished from both battlecruisers and coventional dreadnought designs, their roles were expected to goes toe to toe with a dreadnought on equal terms and capable of chasing smaller vessels without compromise in armors and armaments. The Skinnies Fast Battleships however required more complex materials and technology to build, thus limiting the numbers of Fast Battleships they can build compared to the Federation and Citadel Alliance. Small Military Vessels Combat Support Craft Smaller vessels are exclusively used in a support role to the warships during combat: * Fighters are one-man craft used to perform close-range attacks on enemy ships. They represent a "jack of all trades" doctrines, being capable of performing both * Interceptors are one-man craft optimized for destroying opposing fighters and bombers, these spacecraft relied on their speed and firepower as their advantages in dogfight. * Bombers are large spacecraft with more than two-men crew designed mainly for anti-shipping roles and provide close air supports during planetary landings Shuttles Shuttles facilitate personnel transfer between large ships without the need to dock, or between a starship and the ground. Some models like the UT-47 Kodiak series are capable of independent FTL travel, and the UT-47A is equipped with both mass accelerator cannons and prototype stealth systems. Dropship A dropship is a small type of ship that can drop and pickup troopers on planets. They are equipped with guns at the cockpit. Depending on type and size, each ship carries either one squad, one platoon or one company that is hot dropped onto a surface of a planet, either in infantry combat gear or using drop suits. Starship Attributes See full articles here:Starship Technology See also * Terran Federation Space Fleet * Turian Hierarchy Navy * Asari Fleet * Salarian Navy * Treaty of Farixen * Starship Technology Category:Terran Federation:Contact Category:Background